


Tattoos and Turtleducks

by sansiva1203



Series: Zutara Week 2018 [4]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Modern Era, Zutara, Zutara Week, Zutara Week 2018
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2018-08-05
Packaged: 2019-06-20 11:43:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15533478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sansiva1203/pseuds/sansiva1203
Summary: zuko and katara are awkward roommates when she catches a glance at his waistline and is intrigued by the tattoo on his lower back, as she has the same one on her shoulder.





	1. Moving In

**Author's Note:**

> written for day 4 of zutara week 2018, based on prompts on tumblr. set in present-day, rated t for language. unbetaed, but i am looking for someone to read my future zutara, so please hit me up in the comments for either any of my grammar mistakes or to be my beta.
> 
> this is going to be a multi-chapter fic, as i’m really intrigued by the idea and don’t wanna make it just a one-shot. the first chapter is up for day 4 of zutara week, and i’ll post new chapters every weekend until it’s done. this chapter barely mentions turtleducks, but the entire fic will build their relationship on them. rated t for language.

Zuko moves into his dorm room junior year two weeks early.

He had to pull a helluva lot of strings to make it happen, and of course pay an extra seventy bucks per day, but he thought it was worth it; anything to escape his batshit crazy family for a bit longer. He was the first male in his family for four generations to not pursue a law degree at Harvard; instead, he decided to go halfway across the country from their law firm and home in New York to major in English and Political Science in Illinois, at a public university at that. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign may not have been the best school for his majors, but had a good reputation nonetheless, and was the perfect slap in the face to his father.

Arriving at school a good fourteen days before official move-in day guaranteed Zuko a while to settle in before his annoying roommate would come in, or so he thought. Zuko didn’t like that he wasn’t at PAR this year; he had been at Saunders and Babcock his past two years, but he found Allen to be adequate all the same. A lot of Zuko’s friends his age lived in apartments by then, but university housing was less stuff to deal with; no need to buy furniture and stuff. He also thought it odd that his only choice was in a building specifically coed by room, but maybe that was the only available space. He had made his decision pretty late after all. Zuko only hoped that his male roommate preference was accommodated.

****

Katara moves into her dorm room junior year two weeks early.

She was informed by her RA, a lovely but often stoned guy named Ethan, that her roommate was also moving in early. Of course, she had to find seventy dollars to pay each day she was early; that would be a struggle. But, it sort of equated to money she would’ve had to pay for transportation in late August; plane tickets were almost four hundred dollars cheaper a couple of weeks early. Going to school in the states was hard when your family all lived in India. Her father barely even let her go, but Katara’s uncle who had gone to grad school at UW Madison assured her very worried and overprotective dad that it was worth it to have a four-year degree from an American university, and that he would pop in on her often from his home an hour or so away.

It was her third time leaving home for school, and she didn’t make any false promises about visiting during the year like she did the last two times. Holiday flights were expensive, and she wasn’t planning to waste her hard-earned money on two weeks back home. Sure, it would be nice to see her dad and grandmother, but she didn’t have much other family there, and she would rather spend her time with her brother in Minnesota anyway. 

Getting to school two weeks before everyone else was relaxing; she wouldn’t have to deal with antsy freshmen and their anxious families. Most of Katara’s friends lived off-campus, but there was no way she could buy everything she needed to from India and get it to her apartment on time if she wanted to. School dorms were a lot less hassle.

Katara was kinda dumb this time around. She got held up during their family “vacation” to Chennai for her cousin’s wedding, and was busy with her duties being the only girl cousin in their generation, and got randomly placed as she missed the deadlines for housing registration. Hopefully she wouldn’t get paired with someone annoying, or worse, a boy! Her father would never allow it, and she’d be back home before she could say another word.

****

Katara and Zuko arrive in front of their room at the same time, with identical expressions of shock and confusion etched on their faces. It takes a second for each of them to give the other a once-over; Katara carefully eyeing a tall, vaguely Asian guy, and Zuko staring blankly into the wide brown eyes of an average height Indian girl who was dressed too Illinois-y to be fresh off the boat.

After a few moments of uncomfortable silence, Zuko finally huffs out a breath and says “I guess Ethan said I was coming early too?”

It’s less of a question, since the answer’s obvious, but Katara gives a slight nod regardless. Her congenital hospitality and politeness kick in, and she carefully balances her suitcase before sticking out her right hand and smiling gently.

“Hi, I’m Katara,” she introduces herself. Zuko notes her slight accent, filing it away for later. He precariously sets down the duffle he was holding and returns the handshake professionally, as he was taught at the ripe age of seven. He states his name as well, also noticing her firm and steady grip, and is intrigued.

“Guess we’re roommates, then.” Zuko states the obvious in hopes of making conversation with the girl he’s going to live with for the next eight months, but she just makes a noncommittal noise.

“Sorry,” she adds as an afterthought. “Jet lag is absolute hell, and I’ve just been on an eighteen hour long flight. I’ll be pretty grouchy for the next week.” Zuko simply nods, pulls the key out of his pocket, unlocks the door, and gestures for her to go in.

“Ladies first,” he mutters under his breath, but all annoyance vanishes in a moment when she looks up to smile gratefully at him. God, that smile. Zuko was going to be in for a rough year.

****

Katara walks in the room she’s sharing with Zuko (a boy!), and hauls her one and only suitcase into the center of the room. Zuko steps in a moment later, but he has a few more possessions, with a large suitcase, smaller hand luggage, and duffle bag. 

“Which bed?” she asks, and he shrugs. 

“Would it be okay if I took the one closer to the A/C?” Zuko is used to very cold winters, and loves sleeping with blasts of cold air under warm blankets. She nods, and struggles to get her luggage up onto the raised bed.

“Here, let me help you with that.” Zuko offers, always the gentleman, and grabs the suitcase and easily lifts it onto the bed. The help, she was expecting. Zuko seemed like a nice enough guy from the two second interaction they’d had, and she could see the muscles he had along his biceps and forearms. What she’d most definitely not expected, though, was the bottom inch or so of a tattoo on his lower back as his shirt rode up. That looked far too similar to the tattoo she had on her right shoulder blade. It wasn’t a common tattoo at all, or so she thought, because turtleducks were a pretty uncommon imaginary creature. The only reason she’d gotten one was in honor of her mother, who loved to read, and one of Katara’s most cherished books as a child was the one her mom read to her about turtleducks. She decided on the spot that further investigation was needed. Even being awake for nearly thirty-six hours, spending eighteen of them sitting squashed between a mother and her baby and an old, corpulent man, Katara knew how to make a plan.


	2. a w k w a r d

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the title suggests, awkwardness ensues.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello! if you're reading this, thanks for making your way to the second chapter!
> 
> i'm very very sorry about the shortness of this chapter, but i did promise an update for this weekend. i have marching band practice every day (weekends included) from seven in the morning to six in the evening, so it is hard for me to write and edit new chapters, especially since i'm just writing wherever the story goes; no rigid plot or anything, just a general idea of where things should go.
> 
> i'll try my very best to update again by wednesday (cst). thanks for reading!!

Katara, true to her words, was pretty out of it for more than a few days. India was eleven and a half hours ahead of Illinois, so she spent a lot of late nights that spilled into early mornings binging K-dramas on Netflix. Her roommate, on the other hand, did his best to stay out of her way. She didn’t know what he was up to while she was sleeping during the day, but at least at night, Zuko went to bed at a reasonable hour, barely offering a “good night” before he was out cold.

She hadn’t got much of a chance to investigate much on the tattoo front as of yet, but she did Google the book from where she had chosen her design. It was a short and sweet picture book about a prince and his mother who fed turtleducks. It was pretty plotless, but then again, it was meant for three year olds. The book wasn’t very popular at all, only selling a few hundred copies in the U.K. 

Zuko didn’t seem very British, and he definitely didn’t have an accent, but who was Katara to judge? Most people didn’t catch that she spent the first eighteen years of her life in India, but she did nonetheless. She decided at that moment that she was going to make an effort to get to know Zuko better, whether it was going to be easy or not. After all, she couldn’t very well live with someone she barely knew, could she?

Katara also made a decision to keep Zuko’s gender a secret. She knew her father wouldn’t be happy at all, growing up in a very conservative household, and she really didn’t want to have to apply for a room change, as getting one was close to impossible, so the one time she called her father, she simply said her roommate hadn’t arrived yet. Easy white lie that would make the lives of all parties involved easier.

Of course, as soon as Katara got over her jet lag, which she did more quickly than normal for reasons currently unknown (definitely not to spend more waking hours with a pretty cute guy), the awkwardness became nearly unbearable. 

Their dorm had communal gender neutral bathrooms, so that wasn’t an issue, but generally sharing a living space with someone of the opposite sex whom you had literally known for a week wasn’t the best icebreaker. 

They didn’t speak to each other. At all. Katara had initiated exactly one conversation with Zuko, which went a little something like this:

“Hey, are you cool if I plug in this nightlight?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, thanks.”

That was it. 

Of course, their actual peace had to be broken quickly and sharply. 

In reality, it was Zuko’s fault. He had been out of the room between one and four in the afternoon every day for the past week, and Katara had no reason to think he would be in the room at that time today. His plans changed, apparently, and she entered their room without knocking. It was her room, after all, but she found it strange the door was unlocked. She really thought she had locked it, but maybe she had been mistaken. All thoughts disappeared, however, when she walked in to see Zuko’s back. Zuko’s naked back.

Katara froze. She stood a yard into their room, staring at shirtless Zuko. Staring at  _ hot _ shirtless Zuko. She could see the muscles in his back shifting as he moved his arms, seemingly folding laundry.

_ He obviously works out _ , she thinks to herself.  _ No one gets those kinds of muscle laying around eating samosas. _

She didn’t realize she had said those words aloud until Zuko also freezes, and then slowly turns around on one heel to face her, face flushed red with embarrassment. 

She can barely get a word out to respond by the time Zuko’s grabbed a t-shirt from his pile of badly folded laundry and sprints out the door.

“Well,” Katara muses, aloud on purpose this time. “That wasn’t as bad as it could’ve gone.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much for reading! every view, kudos, and comment truly makes my day and means so much for me, so if you think the fic is deserving, leave kudos and comments please!
> 
> come yell at me on tumblr: find me at veridian-nougat

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading! every view, kudos, and comment truly makes my day and means so much for me, so if you think the fic is deserving, leave kudos and comments please!
> 
> come yell at me on tumblr: find me at veridian-nougat
> 
> new updates every weekend


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